General Terms and Conditions

Art. 1 General

1.1. Usenet.fr S.r.l. (hereafter "Supplier") offers access to use of the Usenet.nl service (hereafter "Service") through the website www.usenet.nl (hereafter "Website"), exclusively on the basis of these General Terms and Conditions.

1.2. Exceptions from these General Terms and Conditions will only apply if they have been confirmed in writing by the Supplier. The validity of any other document e.g. catalogues or other advertising media, is explicitly excluded.

1.3. The customer (hereafter "Customer") declares his agreement to the validity of these General Terms and Conditions, by consenting to them on the Website and enters the required details in the available registration form and sends this to the Supplier.

1.4. Each visit to the Website and any use of the Service by the Customer constitute the full acknowledgement of these General Terms and Conditions by the Customer.

Art. 2 Contract subject matter

2.1. The Supplier will provide the Customer with technical access to the servers available from third parties for the global Usenet service.

2.2. The Supplier, who does not operate own news servers, does not publish or administer himself, or through third parties, any content on the connected servers of the global Usenet service.

Art. 3 Registration for the Service

3.1. The access to the Website and use of the Service require prior registration (hereafter "Registration") by the Customer.

3.2. Only natural persons of full age are entitled to register on the Website for access to the Service. Legal/juristic persons are excluded from Registration.

3.3. The Supplier is not obligated to accept a Customer as a member and reserves the explicit right to refuse any Registration or acceptance without providing reasons.

3.4. With Registration for the Service, the Customer is obligated to provide the following personal data completely and correctly: surname, first name, address and telephone number, valid e-mail address and bank account details.

The Customer declares that he is the lawful owner of the bank account specified by him or an authorized representative of the account holder. The Customer shall be obligated to provide evidence of suitable power of attorney. For the security of the Customer and the Supplier, the Supplier shall save the IP address of the Internet access at the time of Registration, through which the direct debit mandate or authorisation to debit was granted.

3.5. If the Customer should transfer his bank or credit card details during Registration or at a later point in time, he shall simultaneously commit himself to provide these details completely and correctly.

3.6. In order to be able to use the Service and member area on the Website, the Customer will receive a user name and password during Registration (hereafter "Access Data"). For access to the Service, the Customer requires an Internet-capable computer system and a program for reading the articles ("Newsreader").

3.7. In order to provide the Customer with access to the Service, he will receive a user name and password (hereafter "Access Data").

3.8. In the member area of usenet.nl, the Supplier will provide the Customer with a free program (hereafter "Client"). It is explicitly not a component of the Services envisaged in these General Terms and Conditions.

With the use of the Client, Terms of Use specified during installation are acknowledged and fulfilled, which have been provided to the Customer for acknowledgement.

The Customer is at liberty to use programs other than the Client.

The Customer must specify the Access Data in the program used by him, which are notified to him by the Supplier during Registration.

Art. 4 Download quota

4.1. Prior to conclusion of the contract, the Customer must define, according to his requirements, the term of his contractual commitment and the monthly download quota.

4.2. The download quota is the data quantity that the Customer can transfer on a monthly basis, from Usenet, through third party servers, onto his computer.

With the "Download" option in the Client, the Customer can query his remaining download quota for the current month.

4.3. If the Customer has fully utilised his download quota, he has the opportunity to access the affected quota for the following month under the "Recharge" option.

In this case, the contract term will then be reduced by the month that is affected by the pre-empted use.

4.4. At the end of each month, the download quota provided for this respective month and not utilised by the Customer will also lapse.

In the following situations, the claim to a proportional refund is excluded:

- With a lower or no data retrieval by the Customer, compared to the maximum quantity agreed for the respective month.

- If the download quota for the respective subsequent month is pre-empted, the download quota for the running, currently activated month will lapse.

The administration of the download quota and therefore the measurement of whether the quota for the currently activated month will be fully utilised, before the quota for the respective following month is pre-empted, or the respective following month begins, will exclusively be carried out by the Customer.

4.5. The Supplier only provides the monthly agreed download quota within the technical service limits of the Service, under consideration of the provision of services agreed with other Customers. The entitlement of the Customer to access the data of the quota for the following month is therefore not created automatically.

The Supplier has the right to limit the data transfer and possibly block the Customer’s or third parties’ access to the Website and to the Service, if the technical performance of the Service is impaired or the Supplier has reason to assume that the Customer or third parties are using the Service in an unauthorised or abusive manner, particularly as described under Art. 9. The Supplier will immediately inform the Customer by e-mail about such a measure. If the Supplier should not succeed in providing the contractually guaranteed quota for the respective month, the Supplier will credit this quota for the subsequent month or extend the contract term by one month.

Art. 5 Contract conclusion

The contract between the Supplier and the Customer will be regarded as concluded from the date on which the Supplier confirms acceptance of the Registration to the Customer and notifies the Access Data to the Customer.

The Customer will receive a Registration confirmation and the Access Data for accessing the Website.

Art. 6 Start of the contractual term, tariffs, authorisation for automatic access, term of the contract, cancellation

6.1. The contract between the Supplier and the Customer will be concluded for the contractually agreed term.

If the Customer should only choose to use a test period with his Registration, the contractual term will begin at the start of the test period.

Without a cancellation, the contract will extend automatically by a selected term, if it has not been cancelled by later than one (1) days prior to expiry of the contractual term.

In addition to cancellation in writing or by e-mail, the Customer also always has the opportunity to cancel a subscription directly online at usenet.nl. A refund entitlement to the payments made during the selected and confirmed contractual term is also excluded in this case.

6.2. The applicable prices are those, which are valid at the time of contract conclusion and which the Customer has acknowledged upon conclusion of the contract.

The membership fee for the entire term of the contract is payable in advance, either by direct debit on that basis of a direct debit mandate or payment by credit card or by paypal.

With Registration for the Service, the Customer explicitly declares his agreement that the Supplier will charge the bank account or credit card of the Customer in advance with the total price for the contract.

If the Supplier has received the amount, he will send a confirmation of receipt to the Customer.

6.3. The Supplier can adjust the prices for the agreed contractual services, subject to the following conditions.

The Supplier will notify the Customer by e-mail about planned price increases at least four weeks prior to them taking effect.
From the time of receiving the notification regarding the price increase, the Customer has a right to cancellation until the time of the planned price increase coming into effect. If no cancellation takes place within the prescribed period, the price increase will be regarded as accepted. Price falls come into effect from the announced date. For the Customer’s membership fees, a reduction will come into effect as of the following, contractually agreed time period, unless something different has been notified.

6.4. If the bank rejects a payment due for want of cover on the account or because the Customer cancelled the agreed direct debit, the Supplier will invoice all arising expenses per rejected or cancelled direct debit. This amount will increase by the respective bank fees, plus the amount that has been contractually agreed.

If the Customer is more than ten days in default with his payment, or if the Customer has provided false or improper payment information to the Supplier, the Supplier shall be authorised to block access to the Service, after he has issued a reminder for the payment and pointed to the imminent blocking of the Service.

However, blocking access to the Service does not represent exercising the cancellation right.

When access to the Service is blocked, the Customer will continue to be obligated to pay the amounts falling due to the Supplier.

The entitlement of the Supplier to assert his claim for compensation and default interest with continued payment default shall remain unaffected.

Art. 7 Duties of the Customer

7.1. For all changes to personal data used for the Registration or banks details, the Customer is obligated to either amend his profile in the customer section of the Website or notify the Supplier of the changes by e-mail or letter.

The Customer can find the contact data for this purpose on www.usenet.nl under the legal stipulations.

7.2. After Registration for the Service, the Customer is obligated to treat the Access Data to the Website and the Access Data to the customer program confidentially. In order to avoid any unauthorised and/or improper use of the Access Data, the customer will be obligated to keep this data in a safe place and not disclose it to any third party.

On no account, will the Supplier be held liable for losses incurred or for loss of data incurred by the Customer due to unauthorised or improper use. In exceptional cases, the Supplier will be held liable for losses incurred by the Customer due to the Supplier infringing his contractual duties.

7.3. The contracting parties shall be obligated to provide mutual, immediate information about any unauthorised and/or improper use of the Access Data.

With unauthorised and/or improper use or concrete suspicion of this, the Supplier has the right to block the Customer’s Access Data after informing him in advance and excluding the respective Customer temporarily or permanently from using specific or all parts of the Service.

The Customer shall be obligated to check the receipt of e-mails in his electronic mailbox at least once per week.

The declarations of intent, particularly the information, can be sent by the Supplier to the Customer by e-mail.

Furthermore, the Customer will ensure that he can receive the e-mails coming from usenet.nl, i.e. specifically coming from the "@usenet.nl" domain. If the Customer uses anti-spam software or an e-mail service with such a function, he will configure it accordingly. The Customer also agrees to the Supplier sending him messages and information regarding the function of the subscription service and subscription offers by e-mail.

Art. 8 Cancellation right and test period

8.1. From confirmation of the contract conclusion, the Customer will have a cancellation right of 14 days. Within this time period, the Customer can cancel the contract conclusion without providing reasons by support form (http://www.usenet.nl/UNF/SHOP/misc/support/miscSupportForm.cfm?CategoryID=6& ) or by mail to:

Usenet.fr S.r.l.
Via palma il Giovane n. 21
47895 Domagnano
RSM

A cancellation right can - also during the text period - no longer be exercised if the Customer has already started using the Service prior to expiry of the 14-day cancellation period.

However, if the Customer has opted for the test period when concluding the contract, he has the option to cancel the contract during the test period, without providing reasons.

8.2. The Customer is entitled to cancel the contract at any time by e-mail. The cancellation will come into effect upon receipt by the Supplier. The Customer alternatively has the option to cancel his subscription at any time directly online on the Website. A claim to a refund of the payments made for the selected and confirmed term of the contract is excluded.

8.3. If the Customer should not cancel within the test period, the contract will extend automatically by the time period selected and confirmed upon conclusion of the contract. The Customer can only use the test period once, unless the Supplier explicitly permits the Customer an additional test period.

8.4. Outside of the reasons explicitly specified in these General Terms and Conditions, the Supplier reserves the right to cancel the contract for good cause, without prior announcement and without prior notification, pursuant to the conditions envisaged in Art. 9.

In case of a cancellation, regardless of which side carries this out, no payments made in advance will be refunded.

Art. 9 Use of the Service, protection of minors, unauthorised use

9.1. According to the regulations of Art. 3 in these General Terms and Conditions, no content will be disclosed or administered by the Supplier on the servers held available by third parties. The content of the forums/available articles on the servers of the worldwide Usenet Service are set up by third parties and also fall under their responsibility. The use of Usenet takes place exclusively at the risk and peril of the Customer.

The Supplier rejects the liability and responsibility for all types of content retrieved from the Usenet servers by the Customer, particularly for the correctness and completeness of the content or its reconcilability with valid national or international law.

If the Customer provides minors with access to the Internet and Usenet using the Access Data provided by the Supplier, the Customer will exclusively assume the liability for this. The Customer is aware that some content in Usenet may not be suitable for minors.

It is the nature of the discussion forums that are freely accessible to everyone that they could possibly contain harmful, damaging, imprecise or protected, or in some cases, untruthful or otherwise misleading texts in another form.

With the use of the Service, the Customer is obligated to allow prudence, reason and healthy judgement to prevail and comply with legal regulations.

9.2. The Customer agrees to assumption of liability for this information and the resulting consequences. He agreed to use of the Service and the Usenet solely for receiving and sending content or articles, which reconcile with the regulations of these General Terms and Conditions. Within the context of using the Service, the Customer is specifically obligated to refrain from the following:

- Defaming, threatening or inciting hate against others, or infringing the rights of others in any form.
- Disclosing, sending, downloading onto the server, forwarding, sending or offering any type of information and documents, which violate rights or are defamatory, derogative, and harmful and primarily represent, or could represent, impairment of public order and morality or the private life of the other party.
- Disclosing, sending, downloading onto the server, forwarding, sending or offering documents, which violate a patent, a registered brand or trademark, prototypes and models, copyrights, business secrets or all other third party rights, unless the Customer owns the said rights to intellectual property or if its owner has explicitly allowed the Customer to distribute or forward these documents.
- Uploading onto the server of any type of files, software or documents, which contain viruses or are defective or do not correspond to the respective, specified technical parameters or that damage the computer in any form, or could impair its function. This particularly applies to sending unrequested advertising (spamming).
- Advertising or offering products or services, also for private purposes, except for those that are envisaged for this purpose in Usenet.
- Offering surveys, competitions, sales systems with a snowball effect or chain letters, or forwarding these, except in the areas that are intended for this purpose in the community.
- Downloading of documents posted by other users in the Usenet, of which the Customer knew, or reasonably should have known, that their distribution in this form is illegal.

The Customer is permanently obligated to maintain conduct that does not infringe national or international laws. If the Customer is aware of incidents such as those listed above - this listing does not claim to be complete - he is requested to immediately inform the Supplier under the address abuse@usenet.nl and describe the storage location or the illegal documents themselves.

Art. 10 Liability limitations

10.1. The entire content on the servers, to which the Supplier grants access, comes from third party servers, with which the servers to which the Supplier grants access to his Customer automatically exchange data constantly.

In this context, the Customer is properly informed that content that is accessible to him through the Service does not originate from the Supplier, but rather, from third parties.

Therefore, under no circumstances, will the Supplier assume any liability for the said content, over which he exercises no control at any time.

10.2. The Supplier shall only be held liable for losses due to deliberate acts or gross negligence that he has committed himself or have been committed by an employee or legal representative of the Supplier.

The Supplier specifically excludes any liability, regardless of the nature or reason, for content that is distributed on the Internet and/or Usenet, or is made accessible through these networks.

The Supplier excludes any liability for the data downloaded by the Customer at Usenet. This includes when the Customer receives access through a link in the software provided by usenet.nl or an Internet Website of the Supplier. The Customer acknowledges that use of the Internet entails uncertainties (viruses, trojans, attacks by Internet pirates, etc.).

The possible resulting losses and costs will be at the expense of the Customer.

10.3. On no account, will the Supplier be held liable for losses or loss of data incurred and/or suffered by the Customer, caused by unauthorised or improper use.

In exceptional cases, however, in a concrete case, the Supplier will assume the liability for the loss incurred by the Customer due to the infringement by the Supplier against the contractual duties.

10.4. The Supplier cannot guarantee permanent access to the Service or constant use of the Service. However, he will be obligated to offer correct access to the Service within the context of his technical possibilities. Therefore, the Supplier will be held liable only for the case of losses caused due to non-accessibility or impaired usability of the Service, where the loss has been deliberately caused by the Supplier or as a result of gross negligence.

The Supplier is specifically not liable for speed bottlenecks in connections to the Service or unintended or non-culpable failure of the Service.

Art. 11 Data protection

11.1. According to the law governing "Data processing and freedoms" dated 6 January 1978 and its implementing ordinances, the Supplier processes the information specified in Art. 3. This is necessary for providing the Service, invoicing the customer, access to the Service and collecting amounts possibly owed by the Customer to the Supplier.

11.2. The recipients of this information are, according to the intended purpose, the customer services and the invoicing department. They are responsible for processing the customer data at the company’s location in San Marino. The Customer explicitly consents to the transfer of his personal data to San Marino, to the extent required for fulfilment of duties in the contract between the Supplier and the Customer.

The Supplier is obligated to ensure sufficient protection of privacy, freedoms and constitutional rights of its Customers.

11.3. According to law no. 78-17 "Data processing and freedoms" dated 6 January 1978, the Customer has a right to obtain information, correction and cancellation of all personal data sent to the Supplier. Therefore, the Customer can demand that the information can be corrected, completed, clarified, updated or deleted, if it is imprecise, incomplete, unclear or obsolete.

11.4. For invoicing purposes, the Supplier is entitled to disclose payment information to collection companies in an encrypted form. These process the information according to the law on "Date processing and freedoms" dated 6 January 1978 and its implementation ordinances.

11.5. The Supplier will not disclose any of the Customer's personal data to third parties.

With use of access to the Service provided by the Supplier, the Customer establishes a connection with the third parties’ servers, which the Supplier cannot influence in any way.

By contract, the Supplier obligated these third party suppliers not to record any data about the content transmitted using these connections. The third party supplier has the right to record the respective data quantity (in kilobytes), which have been transferred with the respective Access Data.

The Supplier shall not assume any liability for third party suppliers adhering to the contractual agreements.

Art. 12 Changes to the Service and the conditions of use

12.1. The Service is accessible to the Customer 24 hours a day. The total or partial access to the Service can specifically be suspended or entirely discontinued, at the discretion of the Supplier, in case of force majeure, difficulties with data processing or technical difficulties, difficulties in the structure of the telecommunication network, blocking of the telecommunication network, strike, international or regional emergency or storms. This list does not claim to be complete.

The Service can also be disrupted for maintenance reasons.

The Service and the Website are subject to changes and developments. These include a change to the functions at any time without prior notification, to the extent that this does not cause disadvantages for the Customer. The Supplier has the option of replacing access to the Service with another, easy-to-use, technical means of access.

Changes to the Service can take place on the basis of legal changes, technical conditions or due to regulations or instructions from public authorities. If the Supplier should omit significant parts of the Service, he will inform the Customer in writing or by e-mail.

Under this assumption, the Customer has the right to cancel the contract within four (4) weeks after the omission of the relevant Service or technical function. If Customer does not do this, the omission of a Service or technical change will be regarded as accepted.

The Supplier reserves the right to replace, modify or terminate the voluntary services within this Service (e.g. the provision of a Client). The Customer cannot derive any entitlement to retaining or using specific, voluntary services from the use of the options offered to him by the Supplier.

12.2. The Supplier has the right to modify or complete these General Terms and Conditions, subject to compliance adequate prior notice. The Customer can object to significant technical changes within a period of four (4) weeks from receipt of the modified General Terms and Conditions. If the Customer does not object in writing or by e-mail, the modified General Terms and Conditions will take effect in place of the previous General Terms and Conditions after expiry of the notice period.

Art. 13 General provisions

13.1. These General Terms and Conditions are subject to the law of the Republic of San Marino.

The courts of San Marino are responsible for any legal disputes arising from the validity, interpretation and/or application of these General Terms and Conditions and the contract.

13.2. The Customer is only entitled to charge up own claims against similar types of claims by the Supplier, if the Supplier acknowledges the claims or if they have been legally established in favour of the Customer.

Modifications, amendments or subsidiary agreements to these General Terms and Conditions must be in writing and confirmed by an authorised representative of the Supplier in order to be valid. The amendment or omission of this clause must also be in writing.

By means of a declaration, the Supplier has the right to transfer the contract, with all related rights and duties to legal successors.

If the contract envisages that the parties must issue their declarations in writing, this means that the said declarations must be sent by e-mail to the address provided by the Customer and specified by the Supplier. The declarations and invoices sent by e-mail shall be regarded as having been received one week after delivery to the Customer’s electronic mailbox, if they are not retrieved.

If one or several provisions of the contract or one or several provisions of the General Terms and Conditions should be fully or partially invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions or specific parts of these provisions from the contract and/or the General Terms and Conditions. If necessary, an invalid or missing regulation will be replaced by the closest legal stipulation, in commercial terms.

San Marino, September 2009